Heating pack

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a heating pack including: a heating element; a first pack in which the heating element is charged therein and sealed; a second pack sealing the inside thereof in a state where the first pack is accommodated therein, and having a water introducing hole through which water is introduced through one of a front surface and a rear surface thereof; and a temporary blocking member attached in a state in which it blocks the water introducing hole, wherein the temporary blocking member is melted by water. Accordingly, in a normal state, the heating element can be prevented from being contaminated or acting as a heater due to the introduction of foreign matter from outside. Also, when a life jacket wearer falls into the water, the heating element is melted by the water, so that the heating element may be heated without any additional action taken by the wearer.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a heating pack, and more particularly,to a heating pack which generates heat through a chemical reaction withwater.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, a heating pack generates heat by the principle that liquidheating element or heating element powder which is charged in theheating pack has a chemical reaction with water.

Such a heating pack is portable and has been widely used in variousleisure industries. For instance, the heating pack can be mounted on alife vest that a person wears in order to prevent a drowning accidentduring a leisure activity at the water's edge in a river, a lake, or asea.

That is, the heating pack can prevent hypothermia because most ofpersons who wear the life vests die from hypothermia which causes bodytemperature decline.

Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 1, a conventional life vest whichincludes a heating pack will be described.

As shown in the drawing, the conventional life vest 10 includes: afloater (not shown) mounted in an inner space part of an outer cover;and a heating pack 20 which generates heat by a chemical reaction.

Therefore, due to heat generation of the heating pack 20, theconventional life vest can prevent that body temperature of a suffererwho falls into water drops suddenly.

However, the heating pack 20 applied to the conventional life vest 10includes an impact metal plate disposed inside a vinyl pack and issealed in a state where it filled with sodium acetate of a liquid phaseto cause exothermic reaction by the metal plate. So, when an unexpectedexternal shock is applied to the life vest while the wearer is actingnormally, the heating pack may generate heat even though the wearer doesnot fall into water.

Moreover, the heating pack using the metal plate and the sodium acetatecannot continuously keep the heating temperature for a long time becausethe exothermic reaction is rapidly progressed.

DISCLOSURE Technical Problem

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in an effort to solvethe above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior arts, and it is anobject of the present invention to provide a heating pack which causes achemically exothermic reaction only in circumstances that the heatingpack comes into contact with water.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a heating packwhich can keep the exothermic reaction for a long time.

Technical Solution

To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a heatingpack including: a heating element; a first pack which is sealed in astate where it charged with the heating element; a second pack servingto seal the first pack which is accommodated therein and having a waterintroducing hole formed at one of the front face or the rear facethereof for introducing water into the heating pack; and a temporaryblocking member which is adhered onto the second pack in such a way asto block the water introducing hole and is melted down by water.

Moreover, the temporary blocking member is formed of a compound ofstarch flour and glycerin gelatin.

The temporary blocking member is manufactured in the form of a thinsheet and is cut in such a way as to be larger than the waterintroducing hole, and then, is joined to the second pack.

Here, the second pack is made of a water-proofing material.

Furthermore, the size of the water introducing hole is in the range of 4mm to 8 mm.

The water introducing hole includes a partitioning member which dividesand partitions an inlet of the water introducing hole into a pluralityof holes.

Additionally, when the front face of the second pack is quartered, thewater introducing hole is formed at a bisected portion of the lowerpart.

In addition, the water introducing hole is formed at the left side edgeof the upper end of the left side quadrant or at the right side edge ofthe upper end of the right side quadrant of the lower part.

Advantageous Effects

As described above, the heating pack according to the preferredembodiment of the present invention includes the temporary blockingmember which is adhered onto the second pack in such a way as to blockthe water introducing hole and is melted down by water, thus preventingthe heating element from being polluted or generating heat due toinvasion of external foreign matters, and facilitating the exothermicaction of the heating element without any action of the wearer since thetemporary blocking member is melted down by water when the wearer of thelife vest falls into water.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a conventional life vest includinga heating pack.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state where a heating packaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is mountedon a life vest.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the heating pack according to thepreferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a water introducing hole and a temporaryblocking member of FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an adhered structure of thetemporary blocking member of FIG. 2.

MODE FOR INVENTION

Reference will be now made in detail to the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention with reference to the attached FIGS. 2 to 6.

For your reference, in the following description, a heating pack 1000according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention isapplied to a life vest 10, but is not restricted to the above and may beapplied in various leisure industries to which exothermic reaction isutilized.

The heating pack 1000 according to the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention is arranged in the front face part of the life vest10, and includes: a heating element 100; a first pack 200 which issealed in a state where it charged with the heating element 100; asecond pack 300 serving to seal the first pack 200 which is accommodatedtherein and having a water introducing hole 310 formed at one of thefront face or the rear face thereof for introducing water into theheating pack; and a temporary blocking member 400 which is adhered ontothe second pack 300 in such a way as to block the water introducing hole310 and is melted down by water.

As shown in FIG. 2, it is preferable that the heating pack 1000 bereceived and mounted in a pocket part 11 of the life vest 10, but is notrestricted to the above and may be fixed between an outer cover and aninner cover of the life vest 10 in a backstitched state.

First, because the heating element 100 generates heat in order toprevent the phenomenon that a wearer's body temperature drops in asituation that the wearer who wears the life vest 10 cannot be rapidlyrescued after falling into water, it uses powdered compound whichgenerates heat by causing a chemical reaction when it comes into contactwith water.

The powdered compound is made up of ingredients, such as aluminum,quicklime, sodium bicarbonate, sodium hydroxide, and so on. Becausetechnology related with the heating element 100 which generates heat byreacting with water has been previously known, its detailed descriptionwill be omitted. But, if a composition ratio of the compound which formsthe heating element 100 is adjusted, the heating time and heatingtemperature can be set in various ways.

In the meantime, the first pack 200 is sealed in the state where it ischarged with the heating element 100, and is made of a material whichcan absorb moisture well.

That is, the first pack 200 serves as a medium to absorb and transferwater necessary for the exothermic action in the state where it ischarged with the heating element 100.

Furthermore, the first pack 200 may be made with cotton fabrics,nonwoven fabrics, or paper bags which are cheap and is well usable. Inthis instance, because the paper bag tears easily and is transformablewhen it comes into contact with water, it must be above a predeterminedthickness.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the first pack 200 isformed in a rectangular shape, but is not restricted to the above andmay be formed in various shapes, such as a circle or a polygon.

The second pack 300 seals the first pack 200 which is accommodatedtherein, and hence, it is preferable that the second pack 300 be made ofaluminum or synthetic resin material with water-proofing property.

The second pack 300 made of aluminum material prevents that directsunlight or moisture breaks into the heating element 100 accommodated inthe first pack 200 so as to conserve the heating element 100 in safety,and easily transfers heat generated by the exothermic action of theheating element 100.

Of course, the second pack 300 may be selectively made of syntheticresin, such as PVC which is inexpensive, if it provides thewater-proofing function.

Moreover, it is preferable that the second pack 300 is sealed throughthe thermosetting method that heats the edges of two wrappers (of thefront face and the rear face) in a state where the two wrappers arefaced and stacked.

Meanwhile, the second pack 300 has the water introducing hole 310 formedat one of the front face and the rear face thereof.

That is, the water introducing hole 310 is a passage for supplying waterto the heating element 100 to prevent a drop of the wearer's bodytemperature after the wearer falls into water. Water introduced into thesecond pack 300 through the water introducing hole 310 causes heatgeneration of the heating element 100 by wetting the first pack 200.

Furthermore, because the water introducing hole 310 is varied in waterinflow rate according to the size and location thereof and it has aninfluence on the exothermic action of the heating element 100, it isnecessary to limit the size of the water introducing hole 310. Here, inthe drawings, the water introducing hole 310 is formed in a circularshape, but is not restricted to the above and may be formed in variousshapes , such as a triangle or a rectangle.

In the meantime, if the water introducing hole 310 is formed in thecircular shape, it is preferable that the diameter of the waterintroducing hole 310 be 4 mm to 8 mm.

If the diameter of the water introducing hole 310 is less than 4 mm, theexothermic action does not go smoothly because the inflow rate and speedof water for the exothermic action are reduced significantly, but if thediameter of the water introducing hole 310 exceeds 8 mm, the exothermicduration time of the heating element 100 is reduced remarkably becausethe inflow rate and speed of water for the exothermic action areincreased.

Additionally, the water introducing hole 310 may include a partitioningmember 311 which divides and partitions an inlet of the waterintroducing hole 310 into a plurality of holes (See FIG. 5( b)).

The partitioning member 311 serves to prevent foreign matters of acertain size from invading the second pack 300 through the waterintroducing hole 310.

It is preferable that just one water introducing hole 310 is formed inthe second pack 300.

The reason is as follows. Because pressure of the outside (outside ofthe second pack) is higher than pressure of the inside (inside of thesecond pack) before the exothermic action, water is naturallyintroduced, and it rapidly causes the exothermic action. However,because the inside pressure is increased more than the outside pressureby the inside heat during the exothermic action, it blocks the watersupply into the water introducing hole 310, thus adjusting the heatgeneration duration time of the heating element 100.

Moreover, when the front face of the second pack 300 is quartered, it ispreferable that the water introducing hole 310 be formed at the leftside edge of the upper end of the left side quadrant(L) or at the rightside edge of the upper end of the right side quadrant(R) of the lowerpart.

The above was obtained through test results at various positions of thewater introducing hole 310.

As the test results, the exothermic action of the heating element 100was the best when the water introducing hole 310 was formed at the leftside edge of the upper end of the left side quadrant or at the rightside edge of the upper end of the right side quadrant of the lower part.

In the meantime, the temporary blocking member 400 is adhered onto thesecond pack 300 in such a way as to block the water introducing hole310. The temporary blocking member 400 is a safety device whichordinarily blocks the water introducing hole 310 in order to prevent theheating element 100 from being polluted or generating heat due toinvasion of external foreign matters and is melted down by water so asto open the water introducing hole 310 when time passes after the wearerof the life vest 10 fell into water.

The temporary blocking member 400 is made with a compound of starchflour and glycerin gelatin.

The glycerin gelatin ingredient provides flexibility to prevent thestarch flour from being easily broken by external shock in case that thepure starch flour is solidified.

In concrete, the temporary blocking member 400 is made in the form of athin sheet which is manufactured through the steps of mixing starchflour and glycerin gelatin, putting in water, boiling the mixture for apredetermined period of time, and drying the mixture. Next, the thinsheet is cut in such a way as to be larger than the water introducinghole 310, and then, is joined to the second pack 300.

Here, preferably, the cross section thickness of the front or rearwrapper of the second pack 300 is removed into two parts, and then, thetemporary blocking member 400 is interposed between the two parts (SeeFIG. 6).

Alternatively, the temporary blocking member 400 may be attached overthe inner face of the front or rear wrapper of the second pack 300.

As described above, because the heating pack according to the preferredembodiment of the present invention includes the temporary blockingmember 400 which is adhered onto the second pack 300 in such a way as toblock the water introducing hole 310 and is melted down by water, theheating pack can prevent the heating element 100 from being polluted orgenerating heat due to invasion of external foreign matters andfacilitate the exothermic action of the heating element 100 without anyaction of the wearer since the temporary blocking member 400 is melteddown by water when the wearer of the life vest 10 falls into water.

Explanation of Essential Reference Numerals in Drawings

-   10: life vest-   100: heating element-   200: first pack-   300: second pack-   310: water introducing hole-   400: temporary blocking member

1. A heating pack comprising: a heating element; a first pack which is sealed in a state where it charged with the heating element; a second pack serving to seal the first pack which is accommodated therein and having a water introducing hole formed at one of the front face or the rear face thereof for introducing water into the heating pack; and a temporary blocking member which is adhered onto the second pack in such a way as to block the water introducing hole and is melted down by water, wherein the temporary blocking member is manufactured in the form of a thin sheet made with a compound of starch flour and glycerin gelatin and is cut in such a way as to be larger than the water introducing hole, and then, is joined to the second pack, and wherein the size of the water introducing hole is in the range of 4 mm to 8 mm, and the water introducing hole includes a partitioning member which divides and partitions an inlet of the water introducing hole into a plurality of holes.
 2. The heating pack according to claim 1, wherein the second pack is made of a water-proofing material.
 3. The heating pack according to claim 1, wherein when the front face of the second pack is quartered, the water introducing hole is formed at a bisected portion of the lower part.
 4. The heating pack according to claim 3, wherein the water introducing hole is formed at the left side edge of the upper end of the left side quadrant or at the right side edge of the upper end of the right side quadrant of the lower part. 